.poetry: Ego te per omne; The beach; Te vigilans
Three more poems!
One of them I have posted before, in different form, but two are new. The first is the conclusion of a letter from Paulinus of Nola to his teacher and friend Ausonius; the two of them rarely met after Paulinus moved to Spain, with Ausonius remaining behind in his beloved Bordeaux, but they corresponded frequently. Two others are more poems attributed to Petronius Arbiter, although the one beginning "Te vigilans" is probably by an unknown poet.
Also, guess who "Ego te" makes me think of? THAT'S RIGHT.
(Hoc nostra cervice jugum non scaeva resolvit
Fabula, non terris absentia longa diremit.
Nec perimet, toto licet abstrahar orbe, vel aevo.
Numquam animo divisus agam; prius ipsa recedet
Corpore vita meo, quam vester pectore vultus.)
Ego te per omne quod datum mortalibus
et destinatum saeculum est
claudente donec continebor corpore,
discernar orbe quolibet,
nec orbe longe, nec remotum lumine
tenebo fibris insitum,
videbo corde, mente complectar pia,
ubique praesentem mihi.
et cum solutes corporali carcere,
terraque provolavero,
quo me locarit axe communis Pater,
illic quoque animo te geram.
neque finis idem, qui meo me corpora,
et amore laxabit tuo,
mens quippe, lapsis quae superstes artubus,
de stirpe durat caeliti,
sensus necesse est simul et affectus suos
retineat ut vitam suam;
et ut mori sic oblivisci non capit,
perenne vivax et memor.
No wild rumor unyoked our necks,
no long wandering in alien lands,
no end to us - not broken by all the world or time.
My mind will never part from you: first my life,
before your face, will leave me.
You and I: through all chances Fate grants
and Time gives to mortal years.
while this landlocked body holds me down,
though the wide world part us,
you are never far from me, from my sight.
I will bury you in my tendons,
see you, enfolded, in my heart's eye
You’ll be with me
When I shake off my corporeal shackles
and when I wing my way above the earth
to my place in our father's wide heavens,
I’ll fly you there as well.
The end that brings me freedom won't
unchain me from your love:
my mind, outliving its abandoned body,
will remain in its first beginning
and keep its senses, what it loves,
and its own life, and
forgetting death
its memory will live forever.
(Paulinus of Nola)
* * *
O litus vita mihi duclius, o mare! felix
cui licet ad terras ire subinde meas!
o formosa dies, hoc quondam rure solebam
Naidas alterna sollicitare manu,
hic fontis lacus est, illic sinus egerit algas:
haec statio est tacitis fida cupidinibus.
pervixi: neque enim fortuna malignior unquam
eripiet nobis quod prior hora dedit.
Shoreline, sweeter than lifeblood, to return
to my own lands is blessedness.
In this place I once, lovely Day,
breast-stroking, woke the mermaids.
Spring-fed lagoon, sea-lapped kelp,
in this safe harbor for unspoken desires -
I have endured, and no crueler fate can rob
me of what I won in former days.
(Petronius Arbiter)
* * *
Te vigilans oculis, animo te nocte require
victa iacent solo cum mea membra toro.
vidi ego me tecum falsa sub imagine somni.
somnia tu vinces, si mihi vera venis.
My waking eyes, my sleeping soul, both seek you
while alone in bed my defeated limbs lie tangled.
Once I saw you in the hallucination of a dream,
but you'd surpass all fantasy.
Only - come.
(Anon.)
One of them I have posted before, in different form, but two are new. The first is the conclusion of a letter from Paulinus of Nola to his teacher and friend Ausonius; the two of them rarely met after Paulinus moved to Spain, with Ausonius remaining behind in his beloved Bordeaux, but they corresponded frequently. Two others are more poems attributed to Petronius Arbiter, although the one beginning "Te vigilans" is probably by an unknown poet.
Also, guess who "Ego te" makes me think of? THAT'S RIGHT.
(Hoc nostra cervice jugum non scaeva resolvit
Fabula, non terris absentia longa diremit.
Nec perimet, toto licet abstrahar orbe, vel aevo.
Numquam animo divisus agam; prius ipsa recedet
Corpore vita meo, quam vester pectore vultus.)
Ego te per omne quod datum mortalibus
et destinatum saeculum est
claudente donec continebor corpore,
discernar orbe quolibet,
nec orbe longe, nec remotum lumine
tenebo fibris insitum,
videbo corde, mente complectar pia,
ubique praesentem mihi.
et cum solutes corporali carcere,
terraque provolavero,
quo me locarit axe communis Pater,
illic quoque animo te geram.
neque finis idem, qui meo me corpora,
et amore laxabit tuo,
mens quippe, lapsis quae superstes artubus,
de stirpe durat caeliti,
sensus necesse est simul et affectus suos
retineat ut vitam suam;
et ut mori sic oblivisci non capit,
perenne vivax et memor.
No wild rumor unyoked our necks,
no long wandering in alien lands,
no end to us - not broken by all the world or time.
My mind will never part from you: first my life,
before your face, will leave me.
You and I: through all chances Fate grants
and Time gives to mortal years.
while this landlocked body holds me down,
though the wide world part us,
you are never far from me, from my sight.
I will bury you in my tendons,
see you, enfolded, in my heart's eye
You’ll be with me
When I shake off my corporeal shackles
and when I wing my way above the earth
to my place in our father's wide heavens,
I’ll fly you there as well.
The end that brings me freedom won't
unchain me from your love:
my mind, outliving its abandoned body,
will remain in its first beginning
and keep its senses, what it loves,
and its own life, and
forgetting death
its memory will live forever.
(Paulinus of Nola)
* * *
O litus vita mihi duclius, o mare! felix
cui licet ad terras ire subinde meas!
o formosa dies, hoc quondam rure solebam
Naidas alterna sollicitare manu,
hic fontis lacus est, illic sinus egerit algas:
haec statio est tacitis fida cupidinibus.
pervixi: neque enim fortuna malignior unquam
eripiet nobis quod prior hora dedit.
Shoreline, sweeter than lifeblood, to return
to my own lands is blessedness.
In this place I once, lovely Day,
breast-stroking, woke the mermaids.
Spring-fed lagoon, sea-lapped kelp,
in this safe harbor for unspoken desires -
I have endured, and no crueler fate can rob
me of what I won in former days.
(Petronius Arbiter)
* * *
Te vigilans oculis, animo te nocte require
victa iacent solo cum mea membra toro.
vidi ego me tecum falsa sub imagine somni.
somnia tu vinces, si mihi vera venis.
My waking eyes, my sleeping soul, both seek you
while alone in bed my defeated limbs lie tangled.
Once I saw you in the hallucination of a dream,
but you'd surpass all fantasy.
Only - come.
(Anon.)